St Charle’s seminary sends the students of 3rd Year theology for the pastoral ministry frequently at Matridham Ashram. This year also, we, the students of the third year theology were sent to Matritham Ashram, Varanasi. We reached Matridham Ashram on 10th of December and it was the 2nd Saturday and there was a conversion. People come from far places with great faith that Jesus will answer their prayers. Well, people are fed with word of God. For a week, we had input sessions by Fr. John, Sr.Kamal and Fr. Anil Dev. Indeed, we were prepared mentally to go to the villages. In that weekend, there was 3 days retreat for the people and the responsibilities to conduct the retreat were given to us. Each one preached on different topics. On the last day, some of our brothers got the chance to conduct the praise and worship service and two of us preached on that day too. Few people shared their life experience of how they came to Jesus and accepted Christ as the sole redeemer. By experiencing all these, it really encircled our faith also.
We were sent two by two from the Ashram to different villages for four days. The simple people of the villages welcomed us with great respect. They considered us as the people of God. They felt that our presence amidst them brought God’s blessings on them. We conducted prayer services with villagers. Definitely, few brothers had very good experience of exorcism too. Each one had a wonderful experience at different villages. The most wonderful experience we had there is the faith of the people in Jesus Christ. The Word of God is tremendous. They relate their every activity to the person of Christ Jesus, because they have encountered Christ Jesus in some way or the other in their lives.
We came back to Ashram on 22nd Dec. and started decorating the campus. We had prayer services on 23rd Dec. for better weather, since for few days the climate was too cold. And for our surprise, on 24th the sun was so bright from the morning itself. We felt that it was really God’s blessing. The Christmas programe began at 4pm in the evening starting with preaching of two hours followed by a drama then mass. After mass, there was folk songs and movie show like “Daya Sagar”. It went on up to 5.30 a.m in the morning. Some of us got an opportunity to go to a Parish called Mughal Sarai for praying over the people. They had very good experience. It was told that the crowed was more than a lakh. While some brothers were assigned some responsibilities in the Ashram and some went to villages to conduct the games for the children. It was really a unique experience for each one of us there.
Indeed, we are very much thankful to Fr. Anil Dev IMS who is the superior of Matridham Ashram. He welcomed us to his Ashram with great hospitality. We also acknowledge the support and help rendered to us by the staff there especially by Fathers and sisters.
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